I liked the Irvine Hotel location too.
Bob Levi told me very simply that the owner of the Hotel Irvine had no interest in hosting the event again. So whatever the cause of bickering between the competing factions under no circumstances was an audio show going to be held again at the Hotel Irvine.
Yeah, it's not going to be in Irvine again. I wonder if they could find a suitable hotel in Long Beach as its a less expensive area.
Part of the problem is that most hotels don't allow a show like this or would be very, very expensive for exhibitors - this is why shows are primarily done at Airports. In this case, you had a newly refurbished hotel which made it more palatable to the show's organizers.
I also think sound will be better next year (although honestly, it improved vastly over the weekend) - people forget exhibitors had been renting the same rooms for several years at the Hotel Irvine. There also was no press day this year for some reason, so some rooms were basically experiments on Friday.